A New Biometric Technology Based on Mouse Dynamics

Impact of TV Advertising on Buying Behaviour of Rural and Urban Teenagers Abstract This study aims to establish whether the residential background of consumers has a varying influence on their buying decisions due to the influence of TV advertising. Objectives and Hypothesis: This research is conducted with a view to study the impact of TV advertising on the buying behaviour of rural and urban teenagers in India. To achieve the above objective, the following hypotheses were framed:- There is no significant difference in the opinion of rural and urban teenagers’ as far as the influence of TV advertising on their buying behaviour is concerned. There is no significant difference in the perception of male and female teenagers regarding the influence of TV advertising on their buying behaviour. There is no interaction between residential background and gender of the teenagers to affect their buying behaviour with respect to TV advertising. Methodology: The study was conducted on 866 teenagers of Haryana (431 male and 435 female) of which 440 were rural and 426 were urban. The data was analysed by applying counts, percentages, means and ANOVA. Findings: The study suggests that rural teenagers like television advertising more than their urban counterparts. TV advertising has enhanced their involvement in product selection and purchase, they prefer to buy TV advertised products and it is helpful in buying the new products, getting the best product and also supports collective decision making. The urban teenagers also want TV advertised products even though they do not require them. They also like the advertisements of the products that they are using and believe that products are as good as expected from TV advertisements. Buying behaviour of male teenagers is more influenced by television advertisements than their female counterparts. Key Words: Teenagers, impact, television, advertising, rural.

The relevance of cross cultural communication in the Middle East: a case study about Saudi Aramco located in Saudi Arabia Aims, objectives and research questions Globalisation has changed the face of the business world. Globalisation has made possible easy mobilisation of resources including human resources across countries and regions. Many organisations around the world can witnessed to employ people belonging to different regions, countries and ethnicities. Consequently, it gives rise to a diverse organisational culture and brings into cross-cultural communication implications on the organisation (Li, 1999; McSweeney, 2002). One of the general misconceptions is that organisations are not affected by the cross cultural communications. However, researchers such as Bhawuk (2009) and Cohen and Avrahami (2006) argue that organisations face many challenges due to cultural differences of the employees; however, if managed effectively, cross cultural communications can be the source of innovation, creativity and enhancing organisational learning. Saudi Aramco is a state-owned petroleum and petrochemical company which undertakes all the operation starting from exploration, distribution and marketing of Oil. A large number of expatriates from many different countries are working in Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia. As the employees come from many different cultural backgrounds, it will be interesting to examine the nature and extent cross-cultural communication in Aramco as it can provide valuable insights in terms the influence of cross-cultural interactions. Therefore, the aim of this research is to study the implications, challenges and advantages of cross-cultural communications in Saudi Aramco. To achieve this aim, this study sets out the following objectives. To explore the challenges of cross cultural communications which Saudi Aramco faces due to diverse cultural backgrounds of the employees To understand the advantages of cross cultural communications for Saudi Aramco To bring to the fore overall key implications of cross cultural communications for Saudi Aramco To offer recommendations on the basis of the findings of this research This study intends to answer the following questions to reach the aim of the study. What is the role of culture in communication? What are the benefits of a culturally diverse communications within an organisation? What are the communication challenges in a cross-cultural organisation environment? What can be the implications of cross-cultural communications to a multicultural work context of Aramco? Methodology The chosen research philosophy for this research was interpretivism. According to this approach, there is no single objective and universal reality and reality is only constructed by the interpretation of social actors and perceivers and it is the beliefs, values, knowledge and understanding of these social human actors which formulates this reality (Collis and Hussey, 2009). People either use their past knowledge and experiences to construct and understand it or they use the common and shared understanding with other social actors to construct it. Regardless of its subjectivity, interpretivism satisfies the needs for this research as aim of this research is to understand implications of cross-cultural communication in Saudi Aramco. Some outcomes can be measured in quantitative ways but implications of cross-cultural communication are very subjective and can be better researched using qualitative approach. Also when it comes to human perception, it cannot be measured against some set standard and cannot be generalised by asking yes/no questions and therefore for this research it is important to keep an open approach and analyse responses in detail by interpreting them in relation to whole context and social environment (Collis and Hussey, 2009). Given the nature of the study and chosen philosophy, qualitative research is intended to be used to achieve the aim and objectives of this research (Collis and Hussey, 2009). Data will be collected using semi-structured interviews. Open ended semi-structured interviews will be conducted of managers and employees in different departments of the chosen organisation, Saudi Aramco to understand organisation’s perspective on cross cultural communications and its implications on the organisation. Each interview is intended to be recorded if interviewees allow recording. Data will be analysed using content analyses (Saunders et al., 2008). With researches involving human subjects and their data, an important ethical consideration is that of ownership of data (Saunders et al., 2008). It is important to inform participants in advance about the nature and aim of research and how the data would be used. For this purpose, all participants involved in this research will be told in advance of research aims and objectives and how their data would be used and analysed. Participants’ identity will be kept secret and all participants and their responses were kept anonymous (Collis and Hussey, 2009). Brief Literature Review Cross-cultural communication is hampered by various factors and “ethnocentrism” is one of them. Business communications across different cultures go through complications, especially, in cases where members of one culture consider their culture better than others (Durant and Shepherd, 2009). Various cultural difficulties and similarities that exist in societies and in the world are not fully known to many people. Some people are of the view that their culture is superior to others, in addition to their lack of knowledge (Durant and Shepherd, 2009). All of the above-discussed phenomena can be summed up as ethnocentrism. The ethnocentrism has been in studies scientifically for more than a century. According to Thomas (1996), ethnocentrism is explained as when people are judged and conclusions are drawn by others based on their own cultural environment. Intercultural communication is negatively influenced by ethnocentrism (Neuliep et al., 2005). People with high ethnocentrism often make suppositions regarding others, which are based on their own cultural environment. According to Rozkwitalska (2010:38), there can also be other individually deep-rooted factors that influence cross-cultural communication, such as low international experience of individual employees, perception barriers, their characteristics, cultural competences and insufficient level of cultural intelligence. It is the high sense of ethnocentrism that creates barriers to small organisations moving to international arena. Therefore, intercultural differences have to be dealt effectively. A major obstacle in cross-cultural communication process is language differences. Language can become an obstacle to cultural communications when an individual finds it difficult to comprehend other person’s language, uses faulty or poor translations and fails to understand other person’s body language. In order to have healthy cross-cultural communication, knowledge of other party’s language is necessary along with the familiarity of cultural customs, values, practices and non-verbal behaviours (De-hua and Hui, 2007). It is the quality to understand hidden intentions, motivations and meanings, which are extended beyond the understanding of words. The complexities of learning language has been discussed by Li (1999) and according to Lin, people having intelligent elements and language skills like emotion, purpose, motivation and control, still might not be able to understand the language completely. The understanding and knowledge of cultural background is necessary to comprehend language fully. Hence, any business group or individual may face obstacles in cross-communications in doing business with other country without the knowledge of lifestyle, traditions, norms and values of the country. Another cross-communication issue that may be faced by organisations is errors in translation, but it is less likely to create a problem between parties as these errors can be easily detected during communication. Non-verbal communication patterns are important to one’s understanding of communicated message although it is not directly dependant on the use of language. It can include postures, facial expressions, proximity, eye contact, glance and touch. These non-verbal expressions are often used to support a verbally communicated message. Some non-verbal communication methods of one culture are considered as offensive in other cultures (De-hua & Hui, 2007). For example, a simple nodding of the head up and down carries different meanings in different parts of the world. Nodding head in North America means, “I agree” but same gesture in Middle East has different meaning; nodding head up means, “I agree” and up means “I disagree”. While in Japanese culture nodding head simply means “I am listening”. Respecting and understanding non-verbal gestures and communications of others, may spoil or secure a business relationship. Harzing and Feely (2007) argue that language is one of the key challenges for the organisations as to gain the competence and proficiency in second language is difficult for all the employees. Consequently, lack of proficiency in language becomes a hindrance for effective communication, whether it is with client or amongst employees. Durant and Shepherd (2009) argue that communication can be distorted in the presence of expatriates as meanings can be misunderstood or ineffectively understood. As a result the achievement of necessary coordination and consensus on some important matters is hampered in the organisation. Xie et al (2009) reveal that since culture influence the communication, one communication style is not suitable for different individuals; rather, different communication styles suit different individuals depending on their cultural backgrounds. McSeeney (2002), however, argues that though national cultures affect the organisation, however, the cultural affect are not uniform and there is a need of further research to study the cultural effects on organisations. Resources needed and access to primary and secondary data The resources which are needed are relevant to both primary and secondary data collection and analysis. For primary data, first of all access has been managed through personal contacts in Saudi Aramco. To collect data, financial expenses are required as the researcher intends to travel to Saudi Arabia to conduct face to face semi-structured interviews. This is the key financial expense along with printing articles, questionnaire and thesis. These resources have already been planned and managed. Resources relevant to secondary data are the published journal papers and books. For this purpose, University library and computers will be used. A few of the papers have already been accessed and printed. Other relevant papers and books will be accessed during different stages of the thesis. Moreover, company website will also be used to access the published reports and other contents relevant to research. Moreover, meetings with supervisors will be one of the most important sources for successful completion of this research. However, to complete the research on time, time needs to be managed very carefully. Hence, a proper schedule has been developed and presented in the next section. To complete this research project, this schedule will be followed. Project Schedule Steps Description Due date 1 Week -1-2: Area of interest identified 02/02/13 2 Weeks 3-4: Topic selected/form submitted 15/02/13 3 Weeks 4-5: Topic refined to develop dissertation proposal 18/02/13 4 Weeks 5-8: Proposal written and submitted 06/03/13 5 Stage 1: Chapters 1-3 completed 12/03/13 6 Stage 2: Collection of data and information 25/03/13 7 Stage 3: Chap 4 (Results, Analysis and Discussion and Chapter 5 (Conclusions, Implications and recommendations) 06/04/13 8 Stage 4: Writing up 20/04/13 9 Stage 5: Final project draft prepared 21/04/13 10 Submission of Project 22/03/13 References Bhawuk, D. (2009). Intercultural Communication in a Dynamic Environment: Preparing Managers of Developing and Developed Countries Using Cultural Standards”, Psychology Developing Societies, 21, 2, pp161-181 Cohen, A. and Avrahami, A. (2006). The Relationship between individualism, collectivism, the perception of justice, demographic characteristics and organizational citizenship behaviour. The Service Industries Journal, 26, 8, pp889–901 Collis, J & Hussey, R (2009). Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate & Postgraduate Students. 3rd ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan. De-hua, W. and Hui, L. (2007). Nonverbal language in cross-cultural communication. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/34870781/Nonverbal-language-in-cross-cultural-communication, [accessed on 12/02/2013] Durant, A. and Shepherd, I. (2009). Culture and Communication in Intercultural Communication. European Journal of English Studies, 13, 2, pp147 – 162 Harzing, A-W., and Feely, A.J. (2007). The Language Barrier and its Implications for Subsidiary Relationships. Cross-cultural Management: An International Journal, 22, 1, pp38-45 Li, H. Z. (1999). Communicating information in conversations: a cross cultural comparison. International journal of Intercultural Relations, 23, 3, pp387- 409 McSweeney, B. (2002). Hofstede’s model of national cultural differences and their consequences: A triumph of faith - a failure of analysis. Human Relations, 55, 1, pp89-118 Neuliep, J.W., Hintz S.M. and McCroskey, J.C. (2005). The Influence of Ethnocentrism in Organizational Contexts: Perceptions of Interviewee and Managerial Attractiveness, Credibility, and Effectiveness. Communication Quarterly, 53, 1, pp41-56 Rozkwitalska, M. (2010). Barriers of Cross-cultural Interactions according to the Research Findings. Journal of Intercultural Management, 2, 2, pp 37–52 Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2008). Research Methods for Business Students (4th ed.). UK: Prentice Hall Thomas, K.M. (1996) “Psychological privilege and ethnocentrism as barriers to cross-cultural adjustment and effective intercultural interactions”, The Leadership Quarterly,7(2):215-228 Xie A., Rau, P.L., Tseng, Y., Su, H. and Zha, C. (2009). Cross-cultural influence on communication effectiveness and user interface design. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33, 1, pp11-20 PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 7